This is RPG-ology #6: Name Ideas Unlimited, for May 2018. If you’re going to run a game, if you’re going to write a book, if you’re going to tell a story, you quickly find that your characters need names. There are a lot of ways around this. Sometimes a character can exist with only a … [Read more…]
This is Faith in Play #6: True Religion, for May 2018. In the earliest versions of Dungeons & Dragons™, the original role playing game from which all others (including those electronic games that call themselves “RPGs”) are descended, there was a rules section known as alignment. Many players did not understand it; many gamers did … [Read more…]
This is RPG-ology #5: Country Roads, for April 2018. Of course, role playing game referees almost always have maps, and many of us make most of our own maps. The fact is that you don’t really necessarily need maps, and we’ll probably eventually talk about running games without them, but for most of the kinds … [Read more…]
This is Faith in Play #5: Fear, for April 2018. I heard a comment on the radio to the effect that fear is a problem for intelligent imaginative people. The argument was that such people readily envision all kinds of terrifying possible outcomes of any situation, and so give themselves negative expectations. Stupid people, it … [Read more…]
This is RPG-ology #4: The Big Game, for March 2018. I’m going to begin by apologizing to the Christian Gamers Guild President, Reverend Rodney Barnes. It seems we often find ourselves arguing opposite ends of a question. Years ago (maybe decades) we both participated in the Magic Symposium in The Way, the Truth, and the … [Read more…]
This is Faith in Play #4: Bad Friends, for March 2018. This started with a bit of silliness that over the course of a few hours became considerably more serious. It was a morning drive, and on the radio someone was talking about how Jesus had saved her marriage. She said that now her husband … [Read more…]
This is RPG-ology #3: History of Hit Points, for February 2018. Some time ago the Christian Gamers Guild republished the excellent article by Charles Franklin, Hitting Them Where It Hurts. Charles Franklin is the nom de plume of a marine who testifies as an expert witness on issues like that, and a long-time gamer. He … [Read more…]
This is Faith in Play #3: Javan’s Feast, for February 2018. Have you ever been in a game in which a character in the game did something that impacted all the players at the table? It happened to me once. Well, it probably has happened to many of us. It happens sometimes when one player … [Read more…]
This is RPG-ology #2: Socializing, for January 2018. Gamers have, or at least not so long ago had, an image of being socially inept. Many are thought to suffer from high-functioning autistism or Aspergerger Syndrome, to be highly intelligent but have difficulty identifying and expressing feelings, entering into relationships with other people. The “unwashed masses” … [Read more…]
This is Faith in Play #2: Portals, for January 2018. I’m going to begin this with a bit of a theology lesson, continue with a some words from a song I wrote a few years ago, and then tie it back to our fantasy and science fiction stories and games. One of the things that … [Read more…]